UPDATED: 2023 Presidential Election: Yoruba Elders’ Union (YEU) declares support for Atiku! – Newstrends
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UPDATED: 2023 Presidential Election: Yoruba Elders’ Union (YEU) declares support for Atiku!

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A socio-cultural group of Yoruba leaders under the aegis of the Yoruba Elders’ Union (YEU) has declares support for the former two terms Vice President of the federal Republic of Nigeria during the General Olusegun Obasanjo administration from 1999 to 2007 – His Excellency Abubaka Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – during the forthcoming 2023 general election. This decision was taken at their meeting in Lagos on Tuesday, 7th of February, 2023.

Prof. Muhammad Omolaja, the President of the Union, said that YEU considered all the presidential candidates from various political parties using, inter alia, criteria such as competence, experience, health, and general acceptability of the candidates. Alhaji (Prince) Muhammad Omolaja said that H. E. Abubakar Atiku stands clear among his presidential candidate colleagues as regards competence and health.

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In terms of the experience at the presidency level, the Yoruba leaders found that only Alhaji Abubakar Atiku has it among the candidates having served as the Vice President for eight years, and therefore, it will be easier for him to take off upon his election as the President than for a new person who will have to spend about 6 months or more to study the situation in the office before taking off properly and effectively! The challenges in the Nigeria of today would not allow this delay to ameliorate the prevailing sufferings of the Nigerian masses. As regards acceptability, the Yoruba leaders also agreed that H. E. Abubakar Atiku is the most widely accepted presidential candidate across the six geopolitical zones of the country. Abubakar Atiku has been building his network of politics and business for over 40 years! Hence, he is well known in the north, south, west and east of the country.

At the human relations level, Prof. Omolaja said that H. E. Abubakar Atiku is the most detribalized among all the candidates. He relates very well with people from different parts of the country. He married from the southwest (Yoruba), Southeast (Igbo) and from the north (Hausa/Fulani), and he doesn’t discriminate on religious affairs. His choice of a Muslim/Christian ticket also makes him superb in this respect!

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Prof. Omolaja, after the meeting while addressing the journalist, said that already the facts on ground favour Alhaji Abubakar Atiku over and above other presidential candidates. For instance, about three weeks to the election, Abubaka Atiku is clearly leading in the northeast, northwest, north central and south-south geopolitical zones; that is, Atiku and PDP are already leading in four out of the six geopolitical zones of the country. The southeast will probably be dominated by Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who is from Anambra State with Atiku coming second. However, in the southwest, it is either Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progress Congress (APC) from Lagos State comes first with H. E. Abubakar Atiku coming second; and vice versa. It is apparently clear that the situation in the northeast from where the All Progressives Congress (APC) picked their presidential running mate, Alhaji Shetima from Borno State, cannot make a significant difference as the northeasterners will definitely not drop being the region producing the President for a Vice President!

Apart from this, the northern belt of Nigeria is more than the southern belt in terms of the population, political consciousness and number of States; that is, 17 States in the south and 19 States plus the federal Capital Territory of Abuja in the north. In any case, anytime there are two or more serious presidential candidates in the southern Nigeria, the northern candidate always carry the day! For example, in the 1979 presidential election when Obafemi Awolowo was in the race from the southwest and Nnamdi Azikiwe was in the race from the southeast, Alhaji Shehu Shagari from the north won the election. Again, it was the same in 1983 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari won for his second term in office as the Executive President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the federal Republic of Nigeria. It is crystal clear from all indications that history is about to repeat itself in favour of H. E. Alhaji Abubakar Atiku in the forthcoming February 25, 2023 presidential election.

Because of the fact that at this time around, the atmosphere is not clear for the country to produce a President of the southern belt origin, the Yoruba Leaders therefore urge all well meaning Nigerians especially Yoruba sons and daughters and the Southerners in general to forget about all sentiments and come out en masse to cast their votes for H. E. Abubakar Atiku of the PDP during the February 25, 2023 presidential election. This will allow the incoming President Atiku to support the zoning of the presidential candidature to the south after the tenure of his administration.    

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More drama at LP as BoT announces takeover

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More drama at LP as BoT announces takeover

  • NLC rejects Abure re-election
  • INEC disowns national convention

The Board of Trustees at the Labour Party says it has taken over the administration of the party, indicating a fresh trouble in the LP’s internal crisis.

This was announced on Thursday in a statement issued in Abuja by the party’s BoT Chairman, Sylvester Ejiofor.

He said the takeover of the party came after the expiration of Julius Abure’s tenure as LP’s national chairman

Abure was re-elected as chairman t the party’s national convention held in Nnewi, Anambra State, on Wednesday, amid leadership crisis.

All members of the National Working Committee were returned at the convention.

But the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described Abure’s re-election as “an illegality”.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also disowned the exercise on the grounds that it did not monitor the national convention.

INEC spoke through Rotimi Oyekanmi, media aide to INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The BoT’s statement read in part, “Following the expiration of the tenure in office of the immediate past National Working Committee of the LP headed by Mr. Julius Abure, the BoT, in line with the party’s constitution, has stepped in to steer the affairs of the LP.

“This step is to avoid any leadership vacuum in the LP.

“Furthermore, the BoT of the LP, in consultation with major stakeholders in the party, will soon communicate the processes for the conduct of an all-inclusive and expansive national convention of the LP.

“This is in line with the March 20, 2018 Federal High Court consent judgment delivered by Justice Gabriel Kolawole which recognised the Nigeria Labour Congress as the owners of the LP and mandated that an all-inclusive and expansive national convention of the LP be held.

“The decision of the BoT is also in furtherance of the agreement signed between the former national chairman of the LP, Mr. Julius Abure, and the NLC and the Trade Union Congress on June 27, 2022, which was mediated by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“Unlike the charade that took place today in Nnewi and in tandem with the principles of popular democracy, the all-inclusive national convention will start with grassroots congresses at ward, local government, state and ultimately at the national level.

“This process will not leave any genuine member of LP out and will be held in the full view of the Independent National Electoral Commission, media, civil society, security agents, and the general public.”

The Abure-led executive of the party had not responded to the new development as noon on Thursday.

 

A chieftain of the party was quoted in a report by The PUNCH as saying it was a hatchet job.

“Since many of you journalists have been covering this party, have you heard anything about LP Board of Trustees before? It is non-existent.

“How can one Sylvester Ejiofor wake up one day, tag himself as BoT chairman, and issue a statement that he has taken over the affairs of the party? Let him come over to the secretariat and take over then.

“Too many people and mercenaries are just bent on causing conflict in the party,” he said.

 

 

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BREAKING: LP Re-elects Julius Abure As National Chairman

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Julius Abure, the national chairman of the Labour Party

BREAKING: LP Re-elects Julius Abure As National Chairman

The Labour Party (LP) has re-elected Julius Abure as its National Chairman for a second term in office.

Abure was re-elected by a unanimous affirmation of delegates at the party’s National Convention in Nnewi, Anambra State.

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The Chairman of the National Convention and Deputy Governor of Abia State, Ikechukwu Emetu declared him the winner during the event attended by party leaders and members.

More to come…

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El-Rufai set to dump APC, visits Gowon after meeting SDP leaders

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El-Rufai set to dump APC, visits Gowon after meeting SDP leaders

There are talks that a former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, may quit the All Progressives Congress (APC) and move to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the second time.

The rumour is coming after the APC chieftain had held meetings with SDP leaders.

El-Rufai also visited ex-military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, at his residence in Abuja on Tuesday.

His second visit to SDP stalwarts on Tuesday has further fueled speculations that the former governor is planning to dump the APC.

El-Rufai lost his bid to become a minister in the President Bola Tinubu as he was screened out by the Senate over a damaging petition written against him.

He was however pictured at the Abuja residence of Senator Abubakar Gada, along with SDP chairman Shehu Musa Gabam and other party leaders.

Also reported to be present at the meeting were Senator Teslim Folarin, APC governorship candidate for Oyo State in the 2023 general elections, and Senator Nazif Suleiman, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party from Bauchi State.

The meeting at Gada’s home in Abuja on Sunday night came after El-Rufai hosted a Ramadan iftar at his Abuja residence.

Those at the Ramadan iftar include the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam and Shehu Musa Gabam.

El-Rufai also visited Gabam at the SDP secretariat.

Last Friday, a former spokesperson for the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, Daniel Bwala, said the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 Presidential Election, Peter Obi, was planning to leave the Labour Party and join El-Rufai in the SDP.

Bwala, in a post on his X handle, said Obi was planning to leave the Labour Party following the current crisis in the party with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) threatening to take over the party.

Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State, joined the Labour Party in May 2023 in the buildup to the 2023 general elections following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

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